


Over Tacos, With Love

by cricketnationrise



Series: Nurseyweek2021 [3]
Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Confessions of love, M/M, Nurseyweek2021, Oblivious boys being oblivious, Tacos
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-10
Updated: 2021-02-10
Packaged: 2021-03-16 14:07:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,410
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29333526
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cricketnationrise/pseuds/cricketnationrise
Summary: In Nursey’s opinion, there was no worse time to realize you were in love with someone you weren’t dating than in the last semester of college. He thought it should be a universally acknowledged truth, and one that his friends should share. Not that he was going to poll THEM on their opinions of this. Chowder was out because he’d been in love with Farmer since their second date. And Dex was out because – well because if Nursey had learned anything from his gen ed psychology class, one should never tell the control group theywerethe control.
Relationships: Derek "Nursey" Nurse/William "Dex" Poindexter
Series: Nurseyweek2021 [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2151096
Comments: 8
Kudos: 74





	Over Tacos, With Love

**Author's Note:**

> Nurseyweek2021 Day 3: Romance
> 
> Oblivious Nursey and Gotten His Shit Together Dex is my favorite dynamic soooo here we are

In Nursey’s opinion, there was no worse time to realize you were in love with someone you weren’t dating than in the last semester of college. He thought it should be a universally acknowledged truth, and one that his friends should share. Not that he was going to poll THEM on their opinions of this. Chowder was out because he’d been in love with Farmer since their second date. But mostly because he was tired of hearing Nursey's whining. And Dex was out because – well because if Nursey had learned anything from his gen ed psychology class, one should never tell the control group they _were_ the control.

It’s not like there was any point. 

They only had a month left of the hockey season and then a couple months of senior year left after that for them to finish their theses and find a job, not to mention organizing all the end of year shit that piled up for the team: kissing the ice, the passing of dibs, the award dinner…. A semester was practically no time at all. Definitely not enough time to figure out if Dex would be open to dating anyone right now, let alone him in the specific. And even if Dex was up for it, there was no guarantee they’d end up in the same place after graduation or if Dex would want to keep dating after college if it meant long distance or –

Breathing deeply, Nursey tries to relax his muscles and calm down before he triggers an anxiety attack. Dex was on his way back from Murder Stop & Shop and they are supposed to go grab tacos after, but there was no way Dex wouldn’t notice if he looked distressed. And then there would be no tacos. Because Dex would insist on taking care of him, grabbing blankets and water and Nursey’s favorite tea and putting on one of Nursey’s favorite movies and they would be halfway through before Nursey would have remembered that they were supposed to be somewhere else. That definitely hadn’t happened before. No sir.

Dex was a natural caretaker, but that didn’t mean that Nursey wanted to be subject to it today. It was hard enough to be around Dex now that Nursey knew he was in love with him, Dex caring for him specifically would be torture. So. 

He gets up and makes his way downstairs and takes out the trash and makes sure there is room in the fridge for what Dex is bringing home. Before he starts down another anxiety spiral while waiting, Dex shoulders the door open.

“Hey you emerged! Can you grab the last two bags from the truck?”

“Sure thing Dexadoo!” says Nursey.

Working together putting the groceries away, Dex nudges him with his hips and elbows playfully while chatting about his morning. Pure torture.

“You ready for our taco date, Nurse?” Dex asks when they’ve finished.

Only barely managing to hide his shock and stab of hope when Dex says the word date, Nursey says “Chyeah let me just grab my coat.”

They keep up a conversation, sarcastic and trash-talky as always, but a separate part of Nursey’s mind is whirring so fast it’s a wonder Dex can’t hear it working overtime.

Nursey must keep up a façade of normalcy on the walk because Dex is acting like he always does around him. At the restaurant, Dex holds the door open for Nursey, and pulls his chair out before he sits down, just like always. Dex makes sure that Nursey’s tacos don’t have any peanut oil because Nursey is allergic but bad at remembering to check when he’s in a new place. Dex holds out his own taco for Nursey to try because “it’s bomb, Nurse, seriously, you have to try it,” and Nursey takes a bite because he’s hopeless.

Everything is so aggressively normal between them Nursey is seriously considering lighting himself on fire before he bursts out of his skin with holding back the torrent of emotions he has for the guy sitting across from him.

Nursey starts to flag down the waiter when Dex coughs a little and says, “I already paid. Got him when you went to the bathroom.”

“You didn’t have to do that, Dex,” Nursey says. “You just paid for the groceries this morning, and it’s not like I can’t afford it.”

“I know that,” Dex says, flushing. “I wanted to.”

“Why though?” Nursey asks.

Now Dex looks confused, and maybe a little hurt. “What do you mean, Nursey? It’s our taco date, of course I wanted to pay,” Dex says.

“Yeah it’s our taco date, but we could have just split it like we always do,” Nursey replies.

“Nurse. Derek.” The use of his first name snaps Nursey’s head up from where he’d been looking at his own lap to avoid eye contact with Dex. “Did you not realize I asked you on a _date_ date?”

“What?” Nursey’s brain grinds to a halt. There’s no way he heard that correctly. Dex asked him on a date? But he’d just asked Nursey if he wanted to get tacos today. Hadn’t he? Thinking back, Dex had been blushing a lot last night, but Nursey had just thought that he’d been overheated from fixing the dryer again. And he had been stuttering. But that could have been from anything, really… Nursey’s brain restarts again in time to hear Dex still talking.

“…Can’t believe I thought you’d actually say yes to me of all people.”

“Wait no, Dex –“

“Let me get out of your hair, we can forget this ever happened –“ 

“Dex.”

“Good thing I’m already in the basement –“

“Dex!”

“This is so embarrassing, I’ll just go – “

“WILL!”

Dex finally stops moving, one arm in his coat, and halfway out of his seat.

“Please sit back down.” Dex sits, slowly, still blushing up a storm and looking like he’d rather be anywhere but here.

“I said that I didn’t know it was a date. Not that I didn’t want to date you.” Dex lets out a noise that Nursey is absolutely going to chirp him about. Later.

“I’m glad it’s a date, Will.”

“You are?”

“Yeah. I just didn’t realize because you’re always opening doors and stuff for me normally. You ask me to get food with you all the time. I didn’t realize that this time was supposed to be special.”

“Okay that’s embarrassing. I guess was trying to date you all those other times as well so I can see how you might have been confused,” Dex says sheepishly.

“I just thought that you were being my best friend?” Nursey tries.

“Oh my god, Nursey. I’m practically in love with you. The only reason I’m not all the way in love with you is because I’ve been actively trying not to be since there’s only one semester left and I didn’t want to derail your senior year. It didn’t seem fair to ask you to potentially change your post-graduation plans because of our relationship. Chowder’s been on my case to just say something because I’ve whining to him so much over how much I want to date you.”

For the second time in five minutes, Nursey has to restart his brain.

“Wow I should have really given you my poll earlier. Would have saved us some time.”

“Your…poll?”

“My poll about when is most inconvenient to fall in love with someone. Because my answer was the last semester of senior year. But I figured it would bias the results if I asked you.”

“Why would it bias the results?” Dex reaches across the table and grabs Nursey’s hand gently. Nursey’s heart rate speeds up and he can feel his own cheeks warming up.

“You know why.”

“Yeah but, I really need to hear the words, Nursey. Don’t want any confusion, do we?” Dex says shyly.

Nursey takes a deep breath in and out with his eyes closed. Centers himself. He laces his fingers through Dex's. Opening his eyes, he meets Dex’s gaze head on.

“Because I’m in love with you. And I didn’t ask you because I didn’t want to add more pressure to your captaincy. Because I didn’t want to distract you from your thesis or finding a job. Because – mphfff.”

Dex was kissing Nursey. Nursey was kissing Dex back. They were kissing. They were – 

– still in the taco place.

Nursey pulls back reluctantly, “Want to get out of here?”

“I really do.”

“Chill.”

**Author's Note:**

> find me on tumblr @ cricketnationrise


End file.
